Wager-based or “casino-style” gaming is extremely popular. This type of gaming has expanded from table games and mechanical slot machines offered in a few locations, to complex electronic gaming machines which offer a variety of games located at large casinos in many states and countries.
Originally, slot machines were mechanical devices. These slot machines included a plurality of physical spinning reels. The reels were configured to rotate and stop randomly, whereby winning and losing results were essentially random.
In the 1980s and later, electronic gaming machines were developed and became popular. These gaming machines are configured to generate random game results using an electronic controller. For example, relative to a slot machine, a randomized outcome is selected and a controller causes stepper motors to move physical reels into positions corresponding to the selected outcome. Such a principle is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,448,419 to Telnaes.
A similar principle has been applied to other gaming machines, such as those which present video poker games. In particular, these gaming machines are configured so that card values are randomly selected and a controller causes the image of each selected card to be displayed to a player (in similar fashion to the dealing of a random physical card from a deck or shoe of cards at a gaming table).
Players have become very accustomed to watching gaming devices for trends and outcomes. For example, a player who is playing a gaming machine which has yielded a number of wins may wish to continue playing the gaming machine while it is “hot.” The player may believe that if they leave the gaming machine for a period of time, during that time another player will play the machine and receive a number of game wins, only to have the machine enter a period of losing results by the time the player returns. Likewise, a player who has received a sufficient number of losing results may believe that the machine is overdue for a winning result. That player may not wish to leave their machine after losing a large sum of money, only to have another player play the machine and win a large jackpot after only a few plays. In addition, if a player sees another player win large jackpot at a gaming machine, such as one associated with a very infrequent outcome, the player may not wish to play that machine for some time, believing that the probability of the machine triggering that some outcome is then very low.
This is a common principle to games such as IGT's MegaBucks®. This game pays a linked progressive jackpot when a combination of Megabucks symbols is received. However, the probability of that combination is relatively low. As a result, the jackpot, which starts at $10M, often grows quite large. As the jackpot grows, players sense that the “jackpot is overdue”, meaning that statistically the jackpot is past the average hit frequency. As a result, as the jackpot gets large, more and more players play the game for a chance of winning the jackpot. However, once the jackpot has been hit by another player, many players will cease game play on the belief that the probability of their winning the jackpot is then very low.